SERDANG, 12 Sept – Wife of the Prime Minister, Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor felt confident the establishment of the Family, Adolescent & Child Research Centre (FACE), of the Faculty of Human Ecology would enhance the current PERMATA national educational programme.

Her confidence stems from the fact that UPM is one of the institutions administering the PERMATA co-curriculum and also because of FACE’s research on children that has been extended to include teenagers and family.

“I hope FACE will improve with the assistance of current research findings and advance the teaching and learning process among National PERMATA educators.

“I urge UPM to intensify efforts in offering training for the educators with the hope that they will enrich the quality of teaching and learning in the National PERMATA programme.

“It is my hope that one day I’ll get to see our future scholars and the country’s technocrats who are from the products of the National PERMATA Programme,” she said during the opening of FACE held at UPM PERMATA nursery laboratory.

Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah said PERMATA has appointed UPM as lead agency for the National PERMATA Training of Trainers Programme initiated in 2010.

“To date, a total of 1711 trainers have undertaken the PERMATA Negara Trainer Programme, while 582 trainees have taken the Orientation course, Trainer Refresher Course, S.O.P Management Workshop, and Students Management Workshop,” she said.

In addition, UPM’s Vice Chancellor, Dato’ Ir. Dr. Radin Umar Radin Sohadi said UPM would establish FACE as a school laboratory to support the National PERMATA programme and help to enhance its co-curriculum development based on continuous research and with relevance to Malaysian children’s competency.

“FACE also develops better teaching methods in accordance with the PERMATA children’s needs and best teaching practices for the trainers under the programme,” he said.

Dato’ Ir. Dr. Radin Umar said the research conducted at FACE focuses on growth, education and early childhood care, risk and growth aspects of teenage psychology, marriage and relationships as well as parenthood/parenting.

“Nevertheless, an effective co-curriculum should be evidence-based in order to optimize the effectiveness on children.

“Furthermore, UPM is ready to offer a post-degree Diploma in the field of early childhood development equivalent to the Diploma in education for the National Permata to establish a better career path in the field of early childhood development in the public and private sectors” he said.

At the event,Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah launched the Home Early Literacy Package for Kids (HELP-Kids) and a guide book on Play Therapy:Early Detection of Children’s Emotional Problems and Play Intervention. produced by FACE researchers.

Help-KIDS is a stimulation-type literacy material to encourage reading among children from baby to five-year-olds with their parents’ involvement. Under the programme, parents are to read and tell stories to their children based on age development levels and conducted according to proper methods.

As for Play Therapy, the book proposes a checklist to identify problems related to children’s emotions, changes in behaviour and ways to overcome them. Using the checklist, parents and caretakers will be able to detect early signs of problematic children so that timely preventive measures can be taken.